A Thought on Old Age and Decisions

There are times when you have to make a decision. Times when you must decide what it is you will do with your life, and how will you spend it. For some of us that decision comes early. For others of us that decision comes way too late, or at least we think, and believe, that we have wasted too much time, and therefore it is too late to do what we now realize we would like to do. We live in a society now that worships the young, and the energetic, and the athletic. The go-getters, and the power brokers, and we celebrate the celebrities of our time. We with a few years on us, such as myself, have quietly stepped into the background, and though I still firmly believe and am committed to the things I know, I no longer try to stand amongst the young lions who roam the streets of our towns and cities. I, like so many others, have grown older, and with age, have come other things, such as lack of desire, a body worn and wrinkled, and that now experiences pain beyond what I ever imagined. Yes, in some ways, I’m old. Of course, I’m not so old to those who are of my age group. It seems that the older we get the less likely we are to think of old age as being the age we are. Sadly, of course, the young are under no such compunction, and look at those of us who are over the age of 50 as being dinosaurs. Sadly, too, many of our young people think that we have the minds of one, too! I don’t know about you, but it irritates me no end when a young person talks down to me as if my inability to walk well means that I can no longer think so well either… Of course, I understand well their thinking that. After all I was young once, too, and I’ve been where they are at. We all have been where our young people are at…

I believe there’s a difference though between the people of my generation, and of those who came before. There was a time when one generation passed down the values and traditions of the one before. I remember well, all the time I spent with my grandmother, and the many things she talked to me about. Oh, the conversations we had. When she was young she came across the prairies in a covered wagon. Hard to believe, but it was true. She talked to me of her 3 sisters and 4 brothers, and their lives. I was stunned with amazement the first time she told me that they had no TV and only a radio to listen to for a half an hour or so sometimes in the evening. What in the world did they do with their time back then? It was utterly fascinating the world she talked of then, and now it’s seems that was only a figment of my imagination so far away does it seem from the reality in which I now live.

It’s become common place to dismiss our history, and our living history – in the form of our senior citizens – in this country. We dismiss them, discard them, tolerate them, warehouse them, rant at them, and forget many of them. Though I’m not that old, at least to my mind, I’m beginning to see the subtle shift in how people younger than I am view me. I remember the first time a young lady behind a counter gave me my senior citizen’s discount. I liked to have gone into shock, and I’m not so sure had I a cane then that I wouldn’t have smacked her upside the head with it; especially, when you consider the fact that at the time I wasn’t even 50 yet! Thankfully, I took her well-intentioned offer gracefully, and made no reply. Not so much because I’m cheap, but rather because had I confessed, it would have been an admission that I look really old. I realize now of course it wasn’t that I look old, but rather that she just had very young eyes…

In case, you’re wondering where this is leading, it’s to this. I may be older than you, but that does not mean that I’m a dinosaur, and it doesn’t mean that my time is up, or that I can’t still accomplish great and wonderful things. It will probably come as a shock to the young people reading this, but every truly worthwhile invention, book, painting, scientific breakthrough, and anything of any real merit has been accomplished by people well advanced in years. It also means for you older folk reading this that your time has not passed until you’re dead and in the grave, and depending on a decision you’ve made at some point in either your young or old life, it may very well go right on into eternity.

It has always been and will always be the responsibility of the generation that came before to lead the way for those who come after. We, are the ones, who sit in the seat of experience, and who have garnered the wisdom of years spent in living and in the pursuit of truth. We have the benefit of seeing life in hindsight which as anyone will tell you is 20/20. Now, for another truth, If you’re a child of God; if you’ve accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior; if you’ve ever read the Bible – God’s Holy Word – then you know that old age is not a viable excuse to sit on your butt and not do anything.

I’ve made my decision. I’m going to live all out from here on in. I’ve lived the biggest part of my life pretty much the way I wanted, and if you’ve read my blog from the very beginning you know how that worked out. The time has come to decide if I’m just going to live life waiting for my Savior, or if I’m going to live the rest of my life in the middle of the greatest adventure I’ll ever know…serving my Lord. Serving, as in laying down, and laying aside myself, and emptying myself, and allowing My Lord to take me from the inside out and use and spend me howsoever He desires…

In this world there’s a good chance that I may not ever amount to much, but in the Kingdom of God I have nothing but endless opportunity in front of me. Maybe the world says I’m fit for a shelf, but with my Lord and Savior living within me there’s no end to what can be accomplished through me. I know this to be true…and you do, too.

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